I’m lucky and beyond stoked to be writing this week’s Instagram roundup from an airplane bringing me to the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. The name of the event is the extent of the Italian I can write without going to Google, but soon enough the foreign aural beauty of the language will be the backing track to my unrefined personal mutterings of holy shit, it can’t be. Maybe I’ll pick up a phrase or two.
With a head cold and a few hours of sleep to my name I can’t properly describe the excitement I’m feeling without getting all gushy and hyperbolic, but let’s just say I can’t wait to point my camera at all the pretty things and pretty places and pretty people. It will be a pretty fun time, please excuse my lack of eloquence. I’ll write about the event in earnest after I’ve digested it, but I hope the camera can help me out with a few thousand words too.
It’s funny how the lead-up to a weekend like this one can compel me to take a hundred photos of my roommate’s cat like I’ve just received my first big-boy camera, but I’m not complaining about being inspired. For a far better story of similar subject matter that you can read right now, Armando’s put together an excellent piece on his own experience with such things at Imola, and even if you don’t read it you’ll want to see his shots. Speaking of not reading, I’ll shut up and get on with it: these are the Instagrammers we’ve been inspired by recently, I hope they have the same effect on you guys and girls out there.
Jonathan spends a lot of time with the P-Car crowd, but among the wide and narrow bums of 911s you’ll find a playful mix that maps out the road car heroes of the past along with some of their more obscure supporting cast. Plus, his Land Rover is one of the cleanest we’ve seen in a while, so if you’re into boxy utility sharing space with air-cooled high performance Jonathan’s not about to let you down. His style is bright, airy, but not in a vaseline-on-lens sense. It’s all kept very sharp, with just the right amount of contrast to keep things well-defined rather than washed out.
I admit to having an complete car crush on Paul Steinbruner’s ’95 E36 M3—that factory color-matched mesh is just too cool, and to see a stock one in this condition is a treat—but while that’s how I found my way to his Instagram page, I stuck around for the rest.He can do a lot with a lens and computer. The look of his work never seems like it was created primarily with Adobe instead of camera equipment, and though his editing isn’t invasive—aren’t we all glad the “HDR everything” trend faded away?—he still achieves a consistency of tone that can only be done with more than minimal skills in Photoshop. His portfolio is full of thoughtful compositions and lots of color, and as you can see in the samples above, some choice street and race machines.
Okay, the name of this account is very blunt and not all that creative and the photos are more or less five-year-old-cellphone quality, but the idea behind these images is pretty clever, and if I’m honest I spent more time scrolling through this account than any of the others listed here. The reason’s obvious I think: it’s just fun to see what other people come across in traffic. We all know a supercar spotted in the rear-view and approaching fast on the highway is more exciting than seeing one parked next to ten copies of itself at Supercar Sunday. Anyway, if the loose theme of this entry is to find some inspiration for your own photography, here’s a perfect reminder that you don’t need a thousands of dollars of full-frame bodies and prime lenses to make a compelling project.
I met Lyndon McNeil a few weeks ago at the Nürburgring as guests of Falken. Shooting that wild weekend was well worth the jet lag and soggy shoes, but it wouldn’t be such a good time without meeting new people who share those sentiments. Lyndon’s the head photographer at Motorsport Magazine in the UK, and one of those dudes you’d call a bonafide pro. Not a jaded one though, and his attitude stands in refreshing contrast to the other seasoned photographers out there who seem to revel in pretending all the amazing stuff they get paid to shoot is no big whoop (I know you can get used to anything, but you know the type I’m talking about, it’s not limited to this job). Lyndon’s Instagram page isn’t managed by an agent, it’s not all post-produced cover photos. You get a few of the latter, but there’s a lot of behind the scenes and simple cell phone snaps that help illustrate what goes into those glossy two-page spreads.
Johannes Hulsch, or “bokehm0n” (bokeh-m0n, not bokeh-man. Sorry for the Pokémon joke), is our fifth-spot photographer this week. If you’re wondering why there aren’t many cars in this account, the reasoning for that is simple: over the years we’ve showcased hundreds of automotive photographers to choose from, and since the focus of these roundups is split between cool cars and talented snappers, we hope you’ll find these supplements worth a few minutes of Instagram scrolling as well. In the case of Johannes, his portfolio is astounding. He renders the natural landscapes and architecture of the world in a way that makes them appear like studio-lit set pieces rather than real life. His shots often look like beautiful dioramas in my opinion, and if they don’t inspire you to pack even a disposable camera on your next trip, I’m surprised you’ve made it this far!
You know the deal. If you’re looking for more high-quality photographic content to consume during your next conference call or whilst waiting in line at the DMV, check out our official page. We feature people from around the world, so there’s probably something to pique your specific interest.
Even if you’re not looking to buy a Ferrari, we hold our Marketplace photography to the same high standards as our site and our Instagram page mentioned above, so press your nose up to the window all you want, we already clean our own smudges regularly.
